Pedal Tuner

Ive been looking to pick up a pedal tuner so i dont have to keep unplugging from my board to use my hand tuner. the two i was mainly looking at were the korg pitchblack and the tc electronic polytune. so i decided to do a quick search on UG and see what else was out there, and saw a few recomendations for the turbo tuner.

did a bit of research and the accuracy sounds great, and having some options on there is nice. i havent seen any mention of how quickly you can tune with it though, such as people saying they can get in tune with my other two options really fast. also havent seen mention of how visible the strobe is in different lighting conditions (as opposed to the pitchblack which people say is really easy to see no matter what).

i know a couple people on here have tried the turbo tuner, so wanted to see what their experience was (especially in those areas). need to decide if it is worth it spend essentially twice as much as the pitchblack.

or if anyone else has another recomendation, feel free to toss it out.

I hope you meet someone your heightSo you can see eye-to-eyeWith someone as small as you

i love my pitchback. great build quality, will take abuse, has a very nice half strobe mode which is very useful and accurate, plus several other modes. it is really bright, so you would never have to worry about seeing it, from dark stages to direct sun. i would get another if i lost it or stolen. also it can power two or three other pedals with a daisy chain. not going to get you through a huge board, but enough for a wah and delay and OD.

i love my pitchback. great build quality, will take abuse, has a very nice half strobe mode which is very useful and accurate, plus several other modes. it is really bright, so you would never have to worry about seeing it, from dark stages to direct sun. i would get another if i lost it or stolen. also it can power two or three other pedals with a daisy chain. not going to get you through a huge board, but enough for a wah and delay and OD.

Another for the pitchblack here. I've heard good things about the turbo tuner but I have no experience with it. I tried a polytune when I was searching for a tuner and I found it to be a pain. Some people love it though, so I guess trying it out would be best.

except people dont believe that the cheaper price point product may actually be good....so you might as well ignore what im saying.

(though for 40 bucks its a fantastic tuner pedal. not replacing until it breaks...going about 2 years strong)

i personally haven't had one, i am not saying that cheap gear can't be good. i am sure its a solid tuner, but the pitchblack has more features. half strobe, full strobe, traditional style and they all work well, i really like the half strobe. seemed to be quicker.

but hit a typical MF with a 15% sale would put the pitchblack at $60, and it ships free.

the GFS is $45 plus whatever they charge for shipping (which they don't give you without you giving them your email), usually smaller companies would be $5 or so

so $45+?5 shipping = $50 versus a sale that is pretty much every week and get the pitchblack for $60, i would say $10 is worth the difference of getting a pitchblack.

why am i saying that? because that is what i did. i spent $60 on my pitchback on a weekend sale. i was considering the GFS at the time, along with the TC, and the pitchblack is what was best for me.

well that does close the margin. i might have done the same in that situation.

yea, it was a close margin, and i also figured that i trusted MF a little bit more (not that i wound't GFS) i know if something is wrong they will pay shipping every direction every time.

this is what happened to me on MF: i had three JCA2112RC's all fail within a minute of turning it on or not even turn on, and they took good care of everything. they asked what i wanted to do and i told them to keep it, and i wanted a Orange 2x12 (PPC212OB) cab and all they wanted was $50 as a difference. so it worked out far in my favor, but was frustrating.

I can vouch for the TC Electronic tuner. I use the power supply out to run my noise gate without issue and although the polyphonic function is perhaps slightly gimmicky, it is useful for a quick check between songs. Both needle and strobe modes work great. I picked up a Pitchblack for my bass player... it has proven itself to be idiot proof. Both great products.

I have a Polytune, but there's nothing wrong with a Korg Pitchblack. I might go back and get one eventually for another board I'm looking into putting together.

polytunes aren't bad either, it wasn't as easy to see and wasn't as bright.

also there are different uses for different things. some people, some may need to strum all six at once and it may be faster for them to get it in tune

if i am out of tune i can tell which string is out as i play and i sometimes tune in the middle of a chord in a song real quick and isn't a big deal.

all of my guitars hold tune very well for the most part. and usually tune before a set, and check tuning with an E chord or whatnot and tune from that in between songs, and tune maybe three songs later and retune.

but there are definitely benefits of different models and features. and different people need different things.

if you are playing in your room alone often, you can download free tuner apps i have "gStrings" on my android phone. works great, don't need to bother with anything. or for example one of the $15 plug in Korg tuners are fine too.

the headstock clip-ons are another way, they are handy. but i have had two break. one was planet waves the other snark. they don't seem durable.

personally i wouldn't have a pedal tuner unless i was gigging (with my pitchblack).

but really unless you are into your board any time, they aren't the best either, you need to plug them in. seems simple but can be a pain. so just to tune grab your tuner and a cable and go from there, but if i am just sitting on my ass i would just use my phone.

i sold the first one for the polytune. the polytune was alright. i found the polyphonic mode wasn't that accurate, and i found myself just using the strobe function, which worked really well. then i heard a lot of good things about the turbo tuner, so i decided to give it a shot.

my overall impression? the turbo tuner is freaking amazing. a bit weird to use at first, as all strobe pedals, but quickly becomes intuitive to use. more accurate than anything else on the market. a battery lasts forever in it, since it only draws current if the pedal is literally on, not even if there's a plug in the input jack. i love mine. it will be the last pedal i sell. and at what, $130ish, it's easily the best value tuner when you consider the accuracy to cost ratio.

I own a Korg Pitch Black and my other guitarist uses a T.C. Poly Tune. Both are great but if I had to pick one, I'd go with the T.C. Poly Tune - just for the fact that it has a mode where you can see and adjust the tuning of every string simultaneously.

^see, i feel like the actualy multi-string tuning is a bit gimicky. and ive read quite a few reviews where people say it is off by about 1/4 step (and overall its less accurate). even if i went for the polytune, i dont see myself using that feature much.

Quote by trashedlostfdup

but really unless you are into your board any time, they aren't the best either, you need to plug them in. seems simple but can be a pain. so just to tune grab your tuner and a cable and go from there, but if i am just sitting on my ass i would just use my phone.

i probably plug into my pedalboard the majority of the times of the time i play, and ive been jamming with people more lately, hence looking for a pedal. its not going to replace using my phone or pocket tuner or computer apps, its just going to supplement them. thanks for the suggestions though.

Quote by NakedInTheRain

and yes, i'm one of those PBT dudes who swears by his turbo tuner.

i believe it was your comment in another thread that had me start looking into the turbo tuner. glad to hear its still working great for you, that actually helps. how is it seeing the lights for the strobe in different lightings, if you dont mind me asking? its just something i havent seen any comments on, and getting it from someone who has used it would be nice.

thanks for all the comments guys. still not sure about the strobe. ill probably sleep on it a day or so and then decide what to get. so if anyone has any more words of wisdom...

I hope you meet someone your heightSo you can see eye-to-eyeWith someone as small as you

I gig out a lot, and it's been in every dusty old bar and stage, been stepped on , had input cable stepped on (broke the plug on the cable and did nothing to the tuner), and overall just stood up to everything that's ever happened to it over the course of 4 years or so. Still alive and going strong.